DESCRIPTION: This bug is about 1/2 inch long and 1/3 as wide. It is black with three red lines on the thorax, a red line along each side, and a red line on each wing. The wings lie flat on the back when at rest. The young nymphs are red and gray. The population of bugs may number into the thousands.

HABITAT: Box elder bugs normally feed on the leaves, flowers, and seed pods of the boxelder tree or silver maple. Large numbers of box elder bugs are usually on the female, or pod-bearing, tree. These insects feed on male box elder trees and other trees and plants, but they usually do not build up to such large numbers. The adults search for a place to overwinter which brings them into houses where they hide in small cracks and crevices in walls, door and window casings, attics, and around the foundation. During warm days in winter and early spring they come out and scatter through the house. They are primarily a nuisance as they crawl or fly about in the rooms.

LIFE CYCLE: The adult bugs lay eggs in the spring and the nymphs emerge in a few days. The nymphs are small and show more red than adults. These nymphs develop into adults during the summer, then mate and lay eggs which hatch into the nymphs of the second generation. Activity of nearly fully grown nymphs is noticed in August and September when they gather in large numbers on the trunks of box elder trees. The migration of the adults begins at this time.

TYPE OF DAMAGE: The box elder bug becomes a pest in many houses each year in fall and spring. They do no damage by feeding, but their excrement spots on draperies are difficult to remove. The bugs cause little damage to trees.

INTERESTING FACTS: On warm days during winter and early spring, box elder bugs sometimes appear on light painted surfaces outdoors on the south and west sides of the house, resting in the sun.

The flower of this tree is complicated, during the morning is female, in the afternoon is male. So, to obtein big and beautiful fruits (500-800 grames every one) it is necesary to harvest the heavy polen during the afternon, sleep in the refrigerator (the pollen, not me) and pollinate the female flower during the morning with a paintbrush.I observed that with massive invasions of that bugs under the tree the flowers were pollinated. I saw that there was a general pollination, there were more fruits, but smaller.

I forget to say that this tree is very sensible to the ice, more sensible than the avocado, that can tolerate ice during any hours (losing the leaves but saving the life).

And the chirimoyo flower smells very nice, when you are walking and smell the aroma from any hundreds of metres, you stop, hypnotized, and follow the trail. Really nice.

abejaruco. That is incredible. Such a beautiful thing. Have a wonderful day. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service